The Australian government has deferred the public country-by-country reporting requirements to July 2024.
In October last year, the government announced a Multinational Tax Integrity Package as part of the 2022-23 Budget, to require public reporting requirements for relevant companies.
However, the government has now decided to defer the tax reporting requirements until next year in view of comments it received from stakeholders.
According to the government, stakeholders noted that the EU, for example, only requires that level of disclosure for EU member states and certain EU defined non-cooperative jurisdictions.
The focus of stakeholder feedback was that the data labels being proposed were in addition to what is required under the EU approach and the existing OECD BEPS 13 Action – namely, listing and valuing of intangible assets, related party expenses and an effective tax rate calculation in line with the Pillar Two solution.
In addition, concerns focused on timing and confidentiality issues, noting these labels were a departure from the general multilateral consensus on country-by-country reporting.
Some stakeholders noted these additional disclosures could detract from compliance with the country-by-country policy more broadly.
Corporate stakeholders noted the “standard” data labels required for disclosure (those already reported under existing tax transparency rules), although they had concerns that these would need to be disclosed globally, on a fully disaggregated basis.
The government said it will consult further on the appropriate level of disaggregated reporting.